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Focus: Prezza's big gamble on Dome billionaire

John Prescott is on the ropes again after failing to declare a visit to a reclusive US billionaires ranch. We unravel a high-stakes tale of money and influence that goes all the way back to Blairs great folly  the dome

John Prescott heaved his bulk into the saddle and rode off to play cowboy. Stretching before him one Saturday in July last year was the “big country” of sage plains and distant mountains: he was in Colorado as a guest of an American tycoon.

After arriving for dinner the night before, the deputy prime minister had decided to do the Clint Eastwood thing. “He wanted to go riding,” said a source familiar with the trip. “He’s always wanted to get on a horse and round up cows.”

Prescott was in the right place. He was staying at the Eagle’s Nest, a large chunk of modern Wild West owned by Philip Anschutz, a reclusive billionaire. His estate includes cattle ranching, skeet shooting, a golf course, an old stagecoach post, neatly restored, and a stable block where horses are tended by traditional wranglers who speak with cowpoke bluntness.